After increased taxes for the .01%, could a carbon tax be the least onerous tax increase?

Fifty-fix percent of people in the U.S. would support a tax on carbon emissions that would cost roughly $600 per year to help cut the deficit, according to a new poll.

The finding arrives as carbon tax proposals are generating increased interest among policy wonks and climate activists, although political leaders in both parties have spurned the idea.

The online research firm YouGov asked respondents to choose from 10 deficit-cutting options — such as income tax increases, various spending cuts, entitlement reductions and others — that they find “least painful.”

But the poll, conducted for Slate magazine, has a catch: The survey requires each respondent to select enough options to provide at least $900 billion in deficit reduction by 2022.

Within that framework, a carbon tax that would save $159 billion in 2022 received a 56 percent approval rating, according to Slate, which said the poll was conducted among a “representative sample” of 1,000 people.

The carbon tax had the fifth-highest approval rating in the poll. It’s more popular than proposals such as a national sales tax, cutting Medicare or Social Security benefits, and repealing the expansion of health insurance coverage. ...

The most popular choice, with an 84 percent approval rating, was to allow the Bush-era tax rates to expire for at least some people. ...

Fifty-fix percent of people in the U.S. would support a tax on carbon emissions that would cost roughly $600 per year to help cut the deficit, according to a new poll.

The finding arrives as carbon tax proposals are generating increased interest among policy wonks and climate activists, although political leaders in both parties have spurned the idea.

The online research firm YouGov asked respondents to choose from 10 deficit-cutting options — such as income tax increases, various spending cuts, entitlement reductions and others — that they find “least painful.”

But the poll, conducted for Slate magazine, has a catch: The survey requires each respondent to select enough options to provide at least $900 billion in deficit reduction by 2022.

Within that framework, a carbon tax that would save $159 billion in 2022 received a 56 percent approval rating, according to Slate, which said the poll was conducted among a “representative sample” of 1,000 people.

The carbon tax had the fifth-highest approval rating in the poll. It’s more popular than proposals such as a national sales tax, cutting Medicare or Social Security benefits, and repealing the expansion of health insurance coverage. ...

The most popular choice, with an 84 percent approval rating, was to allow the Bush-era tax rates to expire for at least some people. ...

Rankings

"This blog aims to look at more of the microeconomic ideas that can be used toward environmental ends. Bringing to bear a large quantity of external sources and articles, this blog presents a clear vision of what economic environmentalism can be."

Google Ads

Don't believe what they're saying

And allow me a quick moment to gush: ... The env-econ.net blog was more or less a lifeline in that period of my life, as it was one of the few ways I stayed plugged into the env. econ scene. -- Anonymous

... the Environmental Economics blog ... is now the default homepage on my browser (but then again, I guess I am a wonk -- a word I learned on the E.E. blog). That is a very nice service to the profession.-- Anonymous

"... I try and read the blog everyday and have pointed it out to other faculty who have their students read it for class. It is truly one of the best things in the blogosphere."-- Anonymous